Kurukshetra, Jun 28 (PTI) An 18-year-old youth is feared to have drowned after he was allegedly swept away while taking a bath in a canal near Mirzapur here on Sunday, police said.
Police, along with State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) personnel, launched a search operation soon after receiving information about the incident.
The victim Rohit, a resident of Manpur Basoli village in Uttar Pradesh’s Badaun district, had recently passed Class 10 and was spending his summer vacation at his maternal uncle’s house in Khanpur village in Kurukshetra.
According to his uncle Rajveer, who works as a mason under a local contractor, the family had shifted to Khanpur around four months ago.
As Rohit’s vacation was about to end, Rajveer had taken him to Kurukshetra
city to buy new clothes before he returned home.
While returning, they noticed several children bathing in a canal near the Mirzapur bridge.
When Rohit insisted on taking a dip in the canal, his uncle stopped the vehicle, and subsequently Rohit entered the water.
His uncle said Rohit apparently ventured into deeper waters and was swept away by the strong current.
Rajveer said he immediately raised an alarm after seeing his nephew struggling in the water but was unable to rescue him.
Local residents also gathered at the spot, and the police were informed.
Adarsh police station in-charge Surinder Singh Sidhu said a police team reached the scene and called the SDRF to conduct an intensive search operation in the canal.
Rohit is yet to be traced and the search is underway, he added. PTI COR CHS ARB ARB
